Gail+Roe


 * SUMMARY: "Gail," age 23, died in 1975 after a botched saline abortion.**

Life Dynamics lists Gail on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by safe and legal abortion.

Gail was 23 years old when she approached a physician for an abortion in 1975. Gail was 12 - 13 weeks pregnant.

Gail had two children. Her only pre-existing condition was active drug abuse. The doctor scheduled an abortion in six weeks. This was not unusual in the mid 1970s, before mid-trimester D&E abortions became common. The early second trimester was considered a "grey zone" during which the fetus was too big for a suction abortion, but the amniotic sac was not yet big enough to perform a saline abortion.

By the time the abortion was performed, Gail was 18 weeks pregnant. [|Saline was injected to kill the fetus]. Thirty-five hours later, Gail lost consciousness. Staff caring for her were unable to detect a pulse.

Gail was taken for emergency surgery. She was [|hemorrhaging] from a large hole in her uterus. The fetus and placenta were removed and doctors attempted to suture the hole, to no avail. Finally, they performed a hysterectomy.

Despite this surgery and the administration of seven units of blood, Gail remained in intensive care for five days, before she finally died.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.



Source: CDC Abortion Surveillance, Annual Summary 1975, Issued April 1977 75-9493

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